Calastryx
In the long abandoned dwarven citadel Gamil-Kazak, Zook and Capo follow Gavin to the Azer camp. On the way, Rindol lectures the party on dwarven history, particularly that of the First Dwarves, aka the Drazak, aka space-dwarves. When they arrive at the azer camp the leader, Morgran, explains the situation with Calastryx. The powerful dragon sorceress is attempting to complete a ritual that would draw energy from the elemental plane of fire to power the citadel. However this ritual is indiscriminate and causes significant collateral damage to fire plane natives, and the Azer hope to stop it. Zook and Capo say that they'll deal with Calastryx themselves. Mogran gives them some advice for taking on Calastryx, warning them of her intelligence, combat prowess, and fondness for symbol magic and traps. Meanwhile, Hunter X and Yorick continue their exploration of the city. They find the remains of a vault, apparently looted long ago. They find signs that Calastryx herself broke through the barriers on the vault to claim the treasure within. However, a few lockboxes remained untouched, and within they find some misc treasure but most intruiging is a small innoccous stone. Outside of the vault, in a nearby auditorium, Hunter X hears faint music coming from within. They explore and find the music is coming from the office of Malia Ironskin, one of the leaders of the citadel they saw in the statues outside. Through the window, Hunter X sees an ornate, ebony lute that appears to be playing itself. Yorick, unaware of the source, busts through the office door and is attacked by a sonic blast from the lute. He quickly rights himself and grabs the lute, who telepathicaly demands Yorick to release him. After some questioning, they find that this lute carries the intelligence of a musician named Sid, who claims to be close friends with Malia. Sid also seems to be suffering from delusious or denial and believes it is still two hundred years prior and the dwarves still thrive in this city, and that he has a performance that very night. Not wanting to further upset the already prickly and delusional lute, Hunter X takes him out of the office while Yorick plunders it, grabbing the architectural drawings from the walls, emptying the drawers and sifting through the letters and documents. On the desk is a goodbye letter from Malia to her husband and co-leader of the citadel, Urist. Malia regrets the current state of her people and intends to take her followers and, through some ritual, transport them to Moradin's domain Erackinor, where their ancestors await them. In the desk is a small lockbox. Yorick attempts to open it but is struck by the powerful petrification trap that protects it. He's barely able to call for help before turning to stone. Hunter X rushes in to see what happend. Pocketing the mithril key within the lockbox, Hunter rushes out of the auditorium to look for help. Hunter X finds the others and brings them back to the auditorium where Zook is able to reverse the petrification. While they discuss their plans from there, Capo tries his best to impress Sid but fails pretty spectacularly, to his aggravation. From there, the party decides to make for room where Calastryx keeps her prisoners, hoping to find some allies in the fight. They travel past another antimagic door and ornately carved passages before arriving at the entrance to the prison. However, ignoring the warnings, they push open the door and are struck by the deadly Symbol of Death protecting it: Gavin and Capo (who sprung to the front to try to protect his allies) collapse to the ground dead. Seeing no recourse but to push on, they enter the room and find an ornately decorating harem with a number of cages housing a variety of men, women, elves, humans, and etc. A golden bird cage on the end of the room houses a peri, a creature like a beautiful albino woman with wings of flame. In the centre of the room, lounging on a plush bed with his attendants, is a comfortable looking Efreet. Ashiiq is bound to do Calastryx's bidding and prevent the prisoners from leaving and prevent anyone from approaching her lair through the passageway behind him. But beyond that, he seems to have no ill will towards the party and chats animately. He freely shares the other entrance to Calastryx's lair, by flying up through the chasm behind him. Before they go Hunter X speaks with the caged peri, who is able to sneakily bestow Hunter with a fire resistance spell. Zook casts his flight spell and the party ascends the chasm before landing in the throne room. They see the mighty form of Calastryx lounging in the next room, and cast an invisibility sphere to attempt to get closer undetected. However the sorceress is easily able to see through this deception and the battle begins. The battle is long and brutal. Zook is incinerated by Calastryx's fire breath, but the beast is eventually brought down, felled by a dual critical throwing axe strike from the two orcs. Yorick and Hunter X sift through the not insubstantial horde of loot left behind by Calastryx, and explore the rest of the citadel. In the forges they discover the secret to how the citadel is powered. A huge bank of furnaces and forges were manned by dwarves who worked tirelelly creating items. The creative energy released is sapped into the forge which powers the ship. They fight their way through the rest of Calastryx's minions and some dungeon denziens that had taken up residence in the abandoned mine to find the othre three keys needed to open the last unexplored room in the Citadel: The Hall of Moradin. Within, they find the bodies of 80 or so dwarves huddled around a ritual circle. It's hard to say whether Malia's ritual was succesful or not. On the wall is carved map describing the dwarves journey through dozens of systems and planes all the way back to their homeworld. Yorick and Rindol also spot an important looking axe sitting on an altar. Rindol grabs the axe and grins, casting an invisibility spell and teleporting away. However his escape is blocked by the antimagic fields that dissect the citadel and Yorick is able to catch up to him. He interrogates Rindol who reveals that this is the reason he's here: the Axe of the Dwarven Lords, a legendary item in dwarven mythology. Yorick remoes Rindol from the picture, and returns to Hunter X so they can plan what to do next... Next Session: PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS! (Itty-bitty living space!) Category:Spelljammer Session